IBM Watson's ROSS: Legal's Best Friend or Worst Nightmare?
The disruptive force of computing on the legal industry may actually be here sooner than expected.
February 18, 2015 at 07:10 PM
3 minute read
IBM Watson is best known for winning the game show Jeopardy, but its natural language processing engine, its powerful database, machine learning architecture and incredibly fast and accurate search capabilities are poised to disrupt more than a few industries. The medical industry is already experimenting with Watson to ask very pointed questions on curing cancer or stopping the spread of Ebola. In the legal vertical, Watson hasn't made any headlines other than some theoretical discussions around helping with eDiscovery, complex litigation matters or perhaps helping with aspects of legal research.
That has all changed. The theoretical capabilities and disruptive force of computing on the legal industry may actually be here sooner than expected.
IBM has started a new annual program called the Watson University Competition, where it challenges graduate and undergraduate university students to utilize Watson in ways never imagined. A group of students at the University of Toronto developed a new Watson based system called ROSS, dubbed “The Super Intelligent Attorney.” ROSS takes in natural-language legal questions, performs legal research on the issues within the question and attempts to answer the questions with confidence levels.
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Trending Stories
- 1The Law Firm Disrupted: For Big Law Names, Shorter is Sweeter
- 2Wine, Dine and Grind (Through the Weekend): Summer Associates Thirst For Experience in 'Real Matters'
- 3The 'Biden Effect' on Senior Attorneys: Should I Stay or Should I Go?
- 4BD Settles Thousands of Bard Hernia Mesh Lawsuits
- 5First Lawsuit Filed Alleging Contraceptive Depo-Provera Caused Brain Tumor
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250